Good to meet you!

On Wednesday, we at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery had the pleasure of hosting the new postgraduate students from Art Gallery and Museum Studies - thanks to all who came!

We enjoyed munchies and wine with the tutors and, after a nosey into the new show 'Obsession: Contemporary Art from the Lodeveans Collection', representatives from the Henry Moore Institute, Pavilion, Marks in Time exhibition and ULITA said hello and invited students to learn more about their organisations. Others contributed arty-treats and flyers - much of which went to goodie bags for all attending.

We hope that you all enjoyed your brief jolly at the Gallery and will make good use of all there is to offer in the city during your time studying here. Best of luck in your new term from all the Gallery team!

In my personal quest to visit every last museum in Paris (fail), I went to the Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature last year. I am not normally a fan of hunting, but I think that man -and woman-was meant to be an omnivore and that the world has become very hypocritical about it’s food. How many children these days realise or even care where their hamburger started life?

This Museum has an incredibly ‘personal’ feel to it. It’s quite new, having been created by the Francois and Jaqueline Sommer Foundation in 1964 and is housed in the Hotel Guénégaud - a mid 1600s building which has had a major face lift in the past few years. Because this is a privately funded institution, it has had the freedom to create a very individual layout and design beyond it's doors.

The artist Saint Clair Cemin was commissioned to design chandeliers, door handles and banisters in keeping with the theme of the museum and indeed, these are what first strikes the visitor. Cast in bronze, they take the form of plants, antlers and other aspects of the hunt setting the scene for the rest of the museum. Walking up the stairs holding the scaly banister sends a shiver down the spine. Cemin also cast bronze panels showing many aspects of the hunt–heads, shotguns, birds-dreamlike or nighmarish depending on your perceptions.

The museum is set out as a series of cabinets, each dedicated to one or two aspects of the hunt. The Cabinet Rubens, with it’s spooky feathered ceiling,

the Cabinet de la Lincorne, with it’s curiosities. The overall feel is that of a Victorian collector’s house, all creaky floorboards and ticking clocks. Yet this museum has much modern art too. Jeff Koons’ ‘Puppy’ is here, and many other pieces relevant to the museum theme. It has an installation room on the ground floor which was, at the time of my visit, quite frightening, showing Tania Mouraud’s ‘Roaming’-a dramatic, noisy black and white depiction of violence, death and dying.

I really didn’t expect to find much to my taste in this museum, only wanting to add it to my ‘collection’, but I was surprised and amazed to find so much to be excited about there. I will return-soon.

WELCOME New Students!

Hello and Welcome to all our new BA Art History with Museum Studies students, and our new MA Art Gallery and Museum Studies students. It's induction week this coming week and we are all very much looking forward to meeting you.......
mark

Leeds Light Night

Among all the exciting, interesting and downright weird happenings associated with Leeds Light Night on Friday 9th October (see listings here) there's an excellent opportunity to have a sneaky peek at the new exhibitions at the Henry Moore Institute from 5pm - 10pm before they officially open on the 10th. They are: Sculpture in Painting in the main gallery; Subject/Sitter/Maker in Gallery 4 and The Developing Process: The Sculptor's Education in drawings and photography in the mezzanine gallery. (I know, it's a shameless plug, I'm sorry). There's also a great selection of free hour-long talks connected to the exhibition:

21 October 6pm: Mervyn Romans - Drawing from the cast: principles underlying late nineteenth century art education.

28 October 6pm: Ben Read - Hits, myth and truth to material in the 20s and 30s.

4 November 6pm: Richard Yeomans - Basic Design: The pedagogy of Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton.

11 November 6pm: Richard Wentworth - title tba.

Museums and Galleries History Group

Hello All,

I've added a new link to the 'Museums and Galleries History Group' (MGHG) in our Favourite Links section....you can also click here
Abigail and I have just come back from their excellent annual conference at the National Gallery in London (more news on this in the MGHG Newsletter, due in December). You'll also be pleased to know that the 2010 Annual Conference of the MGHG will be held in Leeds, in September 2010 - entitled 'Museums and the Market' - which Abigail and I are organising.
You'll also, I hope, be pleased to note that your esteemed Blog editor is also now the Newsletter Editor of the MGHG...so if you have any contributions for the next MGHG Newsletter drop me a line.....If you would excuse a slight 'puff', do take a look at the MGHG site, I think it's well worth the small £10 (and only £5 for Students!) for annual membership, it's doing excellent work as a forum for critical debates within museum and gallery studies and their practices....and there is a real opportunity to get further invloved in our subject area....

More anon on the MGHG.
Mark